Her teeth caught her bottom lip as an idea took form in her mind as she contemplated his answer. It was a bold idea but you could not come to Taengea without being just a little bold. She stole the fig, food helped her think more freely. It also was her go to when she felt emotional.

She thought absently about how to bring up this idea up to him. She asked about the swords and if he was any good with them. It was a bit of a relief when he said he preferred them not to be his first choice. He nodded in agreement at her words and as he spoke it became her turn to nod in agreement.

“You endeavor to do only your best, like… all of the time?” Sliding an almost amused look his way. “That must be awfully tiring.” Her nose wrinkled and her mouth curved into a teasing smirk. “I am afraid I’ve stopped trying to do my best all of the time. I try and save my energy for the things that really matter to me… those are the things I endeavor to be my best at. The rest of the time, I’ll settle for just making it through the madness of the situation with my sanity.”

Her look at his hips again, caused her to smile. Maybe it wasn’t just the swords she was looking at, but he didn’t have to know that.

‘Would a demonstration interested you, Lady Evangelina?’ His charming smile was a bit too much and it produced a throaty laugh from her.

“Oh, Yes. Yes, I would but this isn’t the best place for.” She turned to him and countered with, “So, I have an idea. My family’s stall is not far from here. How about we take a couple of the horses out, you are looking to buy anyway? You can’t properly test them here anyway, we won’t get far but you can take the opportunity to see a bit of Taengea outside of the Vasilidon.” She chewed on her bottom lip again and met those wondrous eyes of his. “I mean… You are probably too busy… but… I just thought…” Evangelina offered that dimpled, winsome smile. “Crazy idea, no?”

Subtly, she shifted her posture guiding without words toward her goal, a large vendor stall at the corner of this aisle and one of the larger main ones. The tent was set up in stunning purple silks that were tied back to leave the stall an open and luxurious feel. Inside were some of the best horses to be found in both the Leventi stables and in Taengea.

Even at this distance, she could see Icarus catch sight of her and raise an eyebrow slightly. Icarus had been the master of horse for her father’s barony and a personal advisor to the Leventi family in regards to horses since before she’d been born. His military background evident in his posture, and the way his gaze flickered first to Evie and then a little more slowly over Lord Dysmas as if he was assessing the situation all the while continuing the conversation with a young nobleman and his father no doubt searching for the next circus champions. Evie had seen enough of them over the years to know what they were looking for.

Slowing just a little, she turned a little toward Dysmas contemplating what he had just said. It wasn’t often that she felt a tiny bit chastened without feeling like she was an entire disappointment. He was right, of course, he was. Her gaze flickered to her feet as her cheeks tinted a faint shade of baby pink.

“I’d like nothing more than to be contrary at this moment and laugh at your ideas of always putting your full effort into what you are doing, but I am afraid that I can not.” Her gaze lifted as she looked forward to the general direction of the Leventi’s stall. “I’ll concede that you are right, even if I do not always practice your methods.” Her lips softened and she slanted a look at him and sighed, “I do not always put my full effort into things, but I do the things that I consider to matter to me.”

‘It… does get a bit tiresome at times, however.’ His admittance to her created a few light crinkles in her eyes as she chuckled and nodded in agreement. “Indeed.”

At the suggestion of taking a couple of horses out to ride and see his swordsmanship skills, she’d dismissed it as crazy. He was sure to think her the most forward girl he’d ever encountered. Which was entirely at odds with who she was normally. While gregarious, Evie had been let down enough in her short life to know those wallflowers who skirted around the party seemed to draw less attention to themselves, especially of the negative sort.

He hummed in thought, and she blinked her fine, dark eyes at him. He wasn’t seriously considering it was he?

‘No. I think that’s a good idea. Which way is your family’s stall?’ Evangelina’s mouth started to fall open in surprise but she caught it before she looked like a fish making kissy faces. Her eyebrows came together and she stared at him. “You do not think it’s too forward of me?” Her voice squeaked before she had a chance to rein in her words. Biting her bottom lip, she quickly glanced around to see if anyone else had heard her just then. Clearing her throat, she quickly took advantage of the situation and gave a nod towards the purple silk tent. Icarus having seen Evie floundered had looked back over at the pair. Evie offered a small smile to the man who was her horse mentor and friend.

“Come along, I think Icarus should have something suitable to hack out on for us.” She started towards the tent with a bit more purpose, occasionally slanting bemused and curious glances at the giant Athenian.

She toyed with a lock of her chestnut hair from her low ponytail that rested on her shoulder. Evangelina struggled with that perfect courtly grace that was expected of a Leventi. She couldn’t sweep into a room with the grace becoming of a queen like Selene. Nor was the one to demurely set others above herself like Theodora. Olympia had the market on brilliance in politics. Evangelina was growing up in the shadows of what was generally considered perfection within the realm. It was something hard to live up too. It made it difficult to meet people, to talk to them without wonder if they were judging her by her family’s standard. The smile on this man’s face as he replied to her put her at an uncommon ease and tied her in knots all in the same space of time.

Evangelina wanted to say something witty. To offer him that perfect reply that would captivate him. Her eyes dropped and she smiled, her cheeks flushed. Why couldn’t captivate men like her cousins? Why was it so difficult for her? Glancing at him throw her lowered sweeping eyelashes.

“I’ll overlook your forwardness if you overlook mine. Deal?” She sighed, her lips lifting on one corner showing the soft dimple in her cheek. Her eyes fluttered to the ground again, wondering what he’d meant about his motivation being purely selfish? She looked up at him again, her lips pursed opening prepared to ask him that but something in the way he was smiling stopped her and she returned the smile and didn’t ask.

Her cognac-brown eyes brightened as he repeated the name of her father’s Master of Horse. The older man had set her upon her first horse. He’d been there to guide and hone every natural ability with the horses she had. There was a special relationship between her and Icarus that wasn’t quite what a father-daughter relationship but more than mentor and prodigy. Evie’s smiled widened and she caught her bottom lip between her teeth before leading him towards the tent.

Entering the tent, she didn’t linger to look at the horses but did glance over her shoulder noticing Lord Dysmas taking the moment to stare at one of two. She smiled to herself, pride welling up in her. Her blood, sweat, and tears had gone into so many of these horses. Each one seemed to have a story, each was a tiny bit of her legacy. Moving back to a more private part of the tent, she took off a couple of her bangled bracelets. The brown wool chiton’s skirts were loose enough to allow for her riding but she did want to pick up the small dagger that she carried when she was out riding. You never knew when you would need to cut something loose or poke another hole in a piece of the tack. The small dagger had become a piece of equipment that she never went riding without. You only had to walk home once to learn how to prevent such accidents.

Sitting on a large oak trunk she fastened the holster to her riding shoe and sheathed the small dagger, hearing Dysmas’ question as she stood up and walked back over to him. To the side of him, she saw Icarus approaching.

“Do you want to tell him, or shall I?” Icarus gruffly said. Evangelina had known the man long enough to know the gruffness was nothing more then roughness around the edges. The man wasn’t exactly a people person. Somewhere along the way in his life, he’d learned to stop caring what people thought of him and it was evident in his tone and curt actions. Her gaze slid to her Athenian companion, sizing up his reaction before she reached out to pet the soft golden horse.

“That boy’ll buck you right off, Long legs. I can already tell he won’t accept you as his rider.” Icarus’ laugh, brought a smirk to Evie’s lips.

“It’s nothing personal, my lord. Apollo here is one of two… his companion, Hermes, are not riding horses. They are meant for the circus. You won’t find a faster team in Taengea… as long as you do not insult them by sitting your backside down upon their backs.” Evie purred to the sweet looking palomino. Her brow furrowed then and she glanced around, her gaze landing on Icarus. “Speaking of which, where is Hermes?”

Icarus glanced around and frowned, the look he gave Evie told her more then she wanted and her face fell and she nodded. A sigh escaped, “Hey Icarus, Do you mind if we take a couple of horses out for a ride? Lord Dysmas is interested and I’d like to see him ride before I…” Icarus glanced at Dysmas, giving him yet another appraising look and sighed. Whether it was out of some unsaid guilt or that he liked what he saw with ole ‘long legs’ it was hard to tell. He nodded. “Take that little-spotted nuance of yours and that grey filly could use a bit of exercise… I’ll see that one of the boys gets them saddled for the two of you.”

He ran a hand through his thinning hair and turned away to issue the orders. Evie sighed and glanced at Lord Dysmas and tried to smile. “I hate when they split a team up. Apollo and Hermes have been together since they were babies.” She turned back to the Palomino and stroked his face and frowned. “I am sorry, Apollo.” The horse snuffled and nudged her and she gave a half-laugh. “He smells the figs on my hand.”

Glancing up at her new friend she sighed, “It’s the downside these horse fairs, but we are in the business of selling horses and we can’t keep them all.” She wrinkled her nose, “Wish I could say it got a little easier and I guess in a way, it does or rather you learn to cope with it.” She’d been about to continue when Icarus glanced over at her and lifted his head and nodded towards the opening.

Pushing herself away from Apollo, “It seems the horses are ready and waiting.” She pushed herself away from Apollo’s small stall and started towards the opening where there was a small white horse with black polka-dots waiting for her and a dark, steel-grey waiting. Moving to the little appaloosa, she checked the girth. Zee was a well-known barn prankster. He was also the horse that Evie rode when Altair was unable to go out. This crowd. This atmosphere would be too much for her beloved Altair. Zee, on the other hand, seemed to relish every moment to get into a bit of trouble with an audience watching. Her hands slid to the girth as she checked it and she smiled to herself. The wicked little prankster had filled his belly with air as the boys were saddling him… and now… the girth was loose. She tightened it by herself and then with a surprising grace stepped into the stirrup and swung a leg over the short but wide gelding.

Her body instantly sank deeply into the saddle, her legs lengthening as her heels dropped into place. She might not be at home on her legs but on a horse, she was someone entirely different. She was a Leventi.

Glancing at her companion she smiled, “Ester is a sweet girl, my brother has been taking her out the last few weeks and hasn’t had any trouble with her.” Her nose wrinkled again a little as her grin spread widely, “I think it’s a terrible shame for such a lovely creature to be called Ester though… before you ask… I did not name her that.”

“Take your time and when you’re ready we’ll go out the back way, right over there,” She nodded off towards their right at less populated exit. "And we can take the horses out of the capital for a short ride… they’ll enjoy that.”

The true mettle of a man was not whether he could or could not do something. It was whether or not failure kept him from trying again. While it was true that Tino had been riding Ester, no one had bothered to mention that Tino had been practically born upon a horse. For his age, he was undoubtedly one of the most talented young horsemen in Taengea. He had a deep seat, strong legs, and soft hands. Icarus might have been Evangelina’s mentor but he’d done just as superb of a job with her younger brother.

Icarus and Evangelina had both known that the gray filly would test any new rider. She was sensitive, smart, and too-damned independent for the average rider. Something about the tall foreigner had told the puckish daughter of Konstanos that he would be able to unravel the gray’s tricks as easily as she offered them up. It was good to know that Icarus had believed the same thing… While Icarus might like his occasional little joke of putting a rider on too much horse, he would never have offered a horse that would go so far over that line that it would put horse or rider at risk.

Sitting deeply in the padded saddle, she stayed quiet as she watched Lord Dysmas getting a healthy dose of rebellion out of the troublesome filly. Only for a moment did Evangelina though wonder if maybe she should swing off the little appaloosa and offer to let him ride Zee. The smaller gelding stood there quietly though he’d managed to pull the rein into his mouth playing with the strap while his rider watched the gray filly pull her stunt.

Lord Dysmas attempted to issue the command, but there was no heat there. The man would have to find a bit more backbone if he wished to deal with the hot-blooded Tangeans. He would need to find his heat. Ducking her head a little she smiled, out of the corner of her eye she saw Icarus standing in the tent. His hands on his hips as he watched the gray filly throw up her head and continue as she pleased at her own pace.

They passed by her and Zee shooting a conspiratorial smile to Icarus, Evangelina dropped her hands, her thighs tightening just enough to cause the little appaloosa to lurch forward. He was a horse Evangelina could relax and enjoy riding. Altair was like sitting on fire that could burn your body up. Relaxing was not something you could do on the big, gray stallion. The little appaloosa was a ‘game’ horse. Never had he ever refused anything, even once. It was a game for him. A challenge that he wanted as badly as his rider did.

People scattered in front of Dysmas and Ester, but he did cut a delicious figure upon the Leventi filly. She was quite enjoying the view from behind. The sexy gray filly was the perfect sort of horse to parade through the streets upon. The sort of girl who came alive when the eyes of a crowd were upon her. With the giant Athenian upon her, they cut an almost godlike figure weaving through the throng of horse people. Gentle squeezing Zee, she guided her little gelding up to the mare’s flank.

“Here, we can leave the agora with this exit over here.” It was just a slight shift in her weight and Zee tilted towards the exit. Tilting her head just slightly, she kept a close eye upon the filly and Lord Dysmas. “Relax your legs just a little.” She murmured quietly to Lord Dysmas and offered a small smile. “And drop your head just a tiny bit. There you go. She should be as smooth as honey now.”

They were now in the streets of Taengean capital. It offered a wider riding path and fewer foot-traffic lumbering in the way in front of them. Zee strutted through the streets with his ears up and a swing in his step. Evangelina guided them through the streets, slipping Lord Dysmas the occasional smile. Crossing through the city gates, she glanced at him, a puckish smile forming on her lips. “You can’t thoroughly enjoy a Leventi horse until you get out of the city. Why don’t you catch me if you can?”

Without hesitating to let him think or argue about not being ready, Evangelina let her heels graze the appaloosa’s side for the first time as she dropped the reins on his neck. Familiar with what this meant, the little horse jumped forward into a gallop. Evangelina dropped down low against the gelding’s neck as he left the vexed gray filly and Lord Dysmas in a trail of dust.